Buchanan, Kincade draw pointed criticism from Freeze

Tags

OXFORD -- Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze had a direct criticism of his two backup quarterbacks.

Asked after Tuesday's practice about the play of Ryan Buchanan and DeVante Kincade, the redshirt freshmen competing to be Ole Miss' No. 2 QB this fall, Freeze said he was "disappointed, to be candid."

"Not taking care of the ball well enough and our timing is off and just seemed a little bit confused," Freeze said. "I told Dan (Werner, co-offensive coordinator) we got to cleared up mentally with them and get them playing faster."

This is interesting, and perhaps directly tied to what has happened the last two days of practice. Because on Sunday Werner was quite positive when asked about Buchanan and Kincade.

"They understand the scheme and the timing," Werner said. "The big thing for a young quarterback is first thing they do is learn the plays and the schemes and the progressions, then they had to speed it up. It's right there with what it was at the end of the spring."

Ole Miss has made no effort to separate the two publicly, with Freeze saying in the spring he's willing to go into the season without naming either Buchanan or Kincade as the clear No. 2.

"The good thing about those two is they've both used their redshirt so I don't feel like I'm hurting the kids' future for a series here or there to see what he can do," Freeze said at Ole Miss' media day Friday. "Right now, if something happened and we had to play them, Ryan is a little ahead at being a pocket passer, while Kincade is a little ahead at running the entire scope of our offense."